This invention relates to telephone answering and screening systems which provide for control over the reception of incoming telephone calls.
In general, individuals go to great lengths to protect their home and its environment. This is accomplished via different meansxe2x80x94(SECURITY SYSTEMS, FIRE AND SMOKE DETECTORS, LOCKS) and in some cases unpublished phone numbers. At the present time certain Governmental agencies are reviewing the passage of laws to prevent electronic home intrusion via telephone lines. In the recent past the Boston Herald reported that an opt out law is being considered that would permit Massachusetts consumers to place their names on a list that telemarketers would be required to honor. If adopted such a law would prevent unwanted calls from these sources. The opt out list would be administered by the Massachusetts secretary of state office. Action of this nature clearly indicates that a screening device to control telephone access to one""s home can fill an significant need of the general public to insulate themselves from unwanted and intrusive telephone contact.
The need for this type of device to permit individuals to protect their homes from intrusions via telephone lines and prevent unsolicited calls or access to those attempting to commit fraud have been on numerous major television network documentaries and news programs. Recent examples include:
1. Calls preying upon the elderly and inducing them to invest or spend money to receive services or awards that are bogus.
2. Calls soliciting credit card numbers over the phone. The call recipients are told that their account has been frequently charged recently. They are told that if they deny these charges and give the caller their account number they will not be held liable for these charges. This scam often succeeds in obtaining the individuals account number.
At the preset time the general public is almost defenseless and has few if any viable options to deflect these and other bothersome calls including prank and obscene phone calls and at the same time provide access to desired callers and legitimate services or professional organizations.
There are a variety of devices which have been proposed for collecting, interpreting and processing incoming telephone calls to provide for caller identification, call screening and blocking of unwanted telephone calls. One such device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,266,098 which was issued on May 5, 1981 to Novak There are features such as a display of the name of a party related to the identity of the incoming caller described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,924,496 which was issued May 8, 1990 to Figa, et al. The system such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,524,140 issued on Jun. 4, 1996 to Klausner, et al., which describes a telephone answering device which organizes voice messages and personal identifications. And U.S. Pat. No. 5,526,406 issued on Jun. 11, 1996 to Lineau which provides the identity of the caller in a synthesized human voice as another alternative screening device. In addition, a patent application filed in the United Kingdom, No. GB 2 260 0670 A, filed Oct. 18, 1991 by Norm Pacific Automation Corporation describe speech recognition technology to identify callers to screen incoming telephone calls. In addition to these devices, certain preferred caller identification apparatus have been described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,029,196 issued on Jul. 2, 1991 to Morgenstein which describes an external telecommunication switching system for screening telephone calls and devices such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,276,731 issued Jan. 4, 1994 to Ralabel, et al., which describes an apparatus for handling incoming telephone calls for delivering predetermined messages and screening as well as U.S. Pat. No. 5,408,528 issued on Apr. 18, 1985 to Carlson, et al., which describes a method of screening and rejecting telephone calls. While all of these various devices have certain desirable features and utility they have serious limitations in their ability to pass through urgent and other highly desirable calls that may otherwise be diverted or blocked by the various devices described above. For example, if the user of one of tie above systems placed a 911 emergency call and hung up terminating the call before the caller was able to communicate with the recipient of the 911 call, the callback, which could be of substantial importance to the caller, would be blocked by the above described systems. There are also no provisions in any of the prior art devices for temporarily disabling of the screening function to allow a particular call to ring through. In addition, none of the systems above provide the ability to utilize distinctive ringing to distinguish between various calls that the recipient may want to receive but divert to an answering machine. Nor do they provide the use of a distinctive ring to distinguish between various incoming calls to alert the recipient to the prospective caller without having to physically view the call screening apparatus.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an telephone screening device which is automatically disabled with regard to screening of incoming calls for period of time subsequent to the transmission of an outgoing 911 call.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide for user reactivation after a 911 call deactivation.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide for call screening independent of telephone company caller identification signals.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide for screening of unwanted calls without the users phone ringing.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide for the user to program not only screening capabilities but distinctive rings based on certain input information that the recipient can program into the screening device.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide for an economical system which makes use of standard telephone equipment including telephone handsets and answering machines which may already be owned by the user. It is also an object of the present invention to provide incoming callers who have an identification number to place a call and have it ring through to the recipient irrespective of where they are calling from by inputting a code number that is known to the recipient.
It is a further object of the present invention to permit access to the bank or credit card company of the owner of the screening device by allowing the use of a portion of the owner""s account number or social security number to function as an owner selected identification number.
It is also an object of this invention to provide for temporarily disabling of the screening device to permit a particular caller to ring through on one or more occasions and thereafter screen such calls.
Additional objects and features of the within invention are further set forth in this application in the accompanying specification drawings and claims.